Thursday, March 31, 2016

Like it or not, Donald Trump continues to dominate the headlines. It's just like a reality show: What stupid, insulting, demeaning, moronic or revolting statement will the Donald make today? How will the media react? How will the GOP react? What will his opponents say? Can he still be stopped, and if so, how? Will Trump say something stupid, or just tweet it? What journalist will be beaten up next? Will somebody get killed in the end? So many questions, and a lot of time to discuss them, on TV, the internet and on social media.

Let's focus on the comical side of this spectacle again. It's just the best way to survive the insanity. Here are more very nice cartoons:

Well, this should be enough for now! One day, the insanity will be gone, promised! :-)

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UPDATE:

Today, Sarah Palin gave a "speech" on behalf of Donald Trump in Wisconsin, but it was of course her usual mix of talking gibberish and trying to be folksy at the same time.

But the fact that she gave the speech in front of an "establishment" GOP audience made it particularly embarrassing as well as amusing. The members of the audience looked dazed and confused, and gave only very mild applause.

Here is the video, but be warned, there is no reason, no logic, no intelligent thought to be found anywhere - it is just very sad and confusing:

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Happy Easter, everybody! Just a short post - and I don't want start talking about politics at the moment. I need a little break from the daily insanity, and Easter is a good time for that.

As some people have certainly noticed, we have quite a serious new Disqus-problem. It does not seem to affect everybody, but on our computers, we cannot see the actual comments any more. Just on one computer, with Firefox, I can see them, but not with Chrome or any other browser. On the other laptop, we cannot see the comments at all. Very mysterious!

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We haven't changed anything, and I do hope that Disqus will resolve this problem soon.

Kathleen and I have visited my parents, and we had a very enjoyable time with them. My mother has put up some very nice Easter decorations, which we thought we would share with you.

Have a good time, and please chat away in the comments.

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UPDATE:

We have very good news! The pesky "Disqus-problem" has been solved, at least for now.

This is what happened:

For quite a long time already, "Blogger" sends visitors from different countries to sites with different "country-codes", so to speak. If a reader comes from the USA and arrives at "Politicalgates", the reader sees the ".com" ending. A reader from the UK sees ".co.uk.", from Germany ".de", and so on.

So far this never affected Disqus, but a few days ago, everything got messed up. The US-readers could now only read the comments from US-readers, and could not see the other comments, and the visitors from "outside" could also not see the US-comments. As I said, a real mess.

Basically, you have to insert a code into your blogger template, and the blog will then always redirect to the ".com" domain, which again creates an "unified" comment section, just like it has always been the case.

It is not complicated - follow the instruction on this page, and look for the "head" tag in your blogger template, which appears after about 20 lines. After the "head" tag, you have to paste the additional code. Just press enter and copy and paste the short additional HTML-code which is being provided in the article mentioned above into your blogger template, after the "head" tag. Then save the template, and that's it!

So it seems that we can now enjoy the comments together again, hopefully without any further glitches!

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

"The racists and the white supremacists never had anybody they could vote for, now they do."

(Quote by Kathleen, 5 minutes ago)

The time has come to find out how strong US democracy really is. A right-wing extremist candidate who successfully disguised himself as a Republican will soon be crowned the GOP-candidate for the most important position in the world, and we all witnessed how this happened, and who is to blame. As was already apparent when Sarah Palin became a political "star" eight years ago, the US media is ill-equipped to deal with extreme candidates. For the media, it's entertainment first, and politics second. Donald Trump undoubtedly provides great entertainment. It should therefore come as no surprise that the media grants interviews to Donald Trump on a daily basis.

The problem is that a large part of the US population now believes that the madman Donald Trump is actually a viable candidate. How many Americans really believe that, remains to be seen, however, the number is certainly growing rapidly. Donald Trump exploited the media far better than his GOP-opponents, and they paid the price. He needed to spend very little on advertisement, because he usually received it for free, courtesy of the gracious US media.

There the USA will now face the ultimate test. If things go the wrong way, then political and economical chaos will follow. It is virtually impossible to imagine the horrific consequences of a Trump-presidency.

One might think that it is impossible that Donald Trump becomes President of the United States. I am far from certain, because "radical" ideas, once they become "mainstream", can develop a very special attraction. Well, a "fatal attraction", so to speak. Easy solutions for simple minds. And let's face it, there are a lot of "simple minds", everywhere, in every country! Why listen to complicated policy ideas when you can just "build a wall"....?

One of the worst things is the fact that Donald Trump has so far been pretty successful by being an obnoxious and racist bully, who openly encouraged violence against protesters, and who has no hesitation to insult and demean his opponents. Nobody was really prepared for that, and nobody has found the antidote yet. Now it will be Hillary's task to save the world. I can only wish her lots of luck, because she will need it.

Kathleen and I will be away over the weekend - have a great weekend, and have fun commenting, everybody!

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PLEASE NOTE:

Apparently an advert can be seen between the post and the comments. We cannot see it, because we use Adblock Plus (click link to install) on our browsers, and this very useful browser-extension is available for all the main browsers. I do not know what exactly is going on, as in the past adverts could only be enabled by the blog owners. However, we have not enabled adverts and also receive no benefit from them. Blogger is a Google-company, and blog owners can enable "Google AdSense" in order to make money with adverts, but we have not done this.EDIT:Our reader "Endless Summer" alerted us to the fact that this is actually a new problem with Disqus. I now tried to change the Disqus-settings, and the adverts should now disappear. However, it is possible that this won't work straight away. Again, I strongly advise to use Adblock Plus.

People all over the internet today have the same problem, as Disqus quietly changed the settings - adverts are now enabled by default.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Something is changing in the USA, I think we can all feel it. After many years of listening quietly, the brainwashed massed finally found their pick. His name is Donald Trump. We might call him a lunatic or a clown, but he is rapidly achieving a pretty important goal: Causing chaos. Why should this be his goal, you might ask? Because chaos can only be of benefit for him. If there is chaos, you need a strong man to "fix it." In the mind of his followers, this man is the Donald. Through inciting hatred over and over again against protesters at his rallies, the inevitable is happening: People are getting angrier, on both sides, and violence suddenly becomes reality.Just as the Nazis "saved" Germany in 1933 from the chaos they created themselves, Donald Trump will now say: I am the only one who will restore law and order.

Donald Trump's rally in Chicago had to be cancelled today because protesters basically took over the floor. Astonishing as well as frightening scenes occurred. I fear that at some point a gun will be pulled and somebody will get shot. The consequences would be catastrophic. By encouraging his supporters to beat protesters as well as openly presenting himself as a white supremacist, Trump is definitely responsible for this new and dramatic development. But could these events give him an advantage? This remains to be seen. I do not believe however that this is impossible.

My feeling is that Donald Trump's provocations are calculated, and that he hopes for an angry response. This being said, it surely is important to protest against a man who clearly wants to be a dictator, and who loathes the freedoms which are being protected in a democracy, like a free press and the right to protest.

In an interview with Don Lemon on CNN, who was asking good questions, Donald Trump denies that it was him who was causing the violence, and naturally, he does not regret anything he said about protesters in the past, that they should be beaten etc. He falsely claims that the protesters were the ones who were being violent during his rallies in the past, and then makes up some stories to bolster his claim, after being challenged by Don Lemon.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

I know that many of you enjoy hearing some interesting details about European or German politics from time to time, and today I have something interesting to report. In our state of Hessen, one of 16 German states, there are local elections today. So far, so good. I have to admit that I do not really follow local politics, as everything is perfect here, and nothing needs to be done at all (LOL!). No, seriously, I am probably a bit too distracted by US politics.

However, when I received the election notice, I got a bit more interested, because included with the election notice was also an "example copy" of the voting ballot. I guess that most of you have never seen such a ballot, because it is unusual. Correct me if I am wrong. I know nothing of local US elections, after all!

Well, to be precise, there were two "example ballots" in the mail. One is for the Frankfurt City Council, and one is for the local Borough Council. I am talking here in the first the place about the ballot for the City Council. What is so special about it, you ask? First of all, it is yuuuuuuuuuuge. I mean, seriously, if Donald Trump had designed it, it could not be any yuuuuuuuuger. I measured it, in order to give you an exact figure, and the original ballot measures, not joking, 1.45 meters in length - that's 57 inches. Here is the proof:

But the yuuuuuugeness does not stop there. How many votes do you think each voter has? One, two, three? NO! For the Frankfurt City Council elections, every voter has no less than 93 votes. That is, because, perfect German logic, there are 93 seats in the City Council. And you really can set 93 crosses on this piece of paper, if you like. You can even distribute these crosses among candidates from totally different parties. And there are lots of them - people and parties.

You can also give one or more votes for each candidate, up to three votes. You can also just vote for a whole "party list", and the 93 votes will then all be counted for this party list. If you do not like people from this list, you can also cross them out. Anyway, there would be much more to explain, but I think you get the general idea. Did you already know that the Germans love complicated things?

The German state and federal elections are much less complicated, because in these elections, you have only two votes, one for a party list, and one for the Representative (Member of Parliament) of your voting district. But in local elections, things can be very different, as you can see, although the rules vary from state to state.

Let's take a closer look at the ballot. On several portions of the ballot, the voting rules are being explained, and as you have already seen, they require careful study, LOL!

You have the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, traditionally the two largest parties in Germany....

....as well as the other "main" smaller parties, the Green Party, the far-left socialist party, helpfully called "The Left", and well as the Liberal Democrats.

Then there are lots of "splinter parties", some of which are already represented the City Council, sometimes just with one seat. The fact that there is no "5% hurdle" for the City Council which exists in state or federal elections means that it is possible even for very little parties to get one or more seats. Some of these little parties are "serious", and some are just plain weird.

There is for example the "Pirate Party" (the Wikileaks/Snowden party) and the "Ecological Leftist Anti-Racist" party:

There are for example also the "Grey Panthers", a long established pensioners party (which has no influence, however), the unknown "Alliance for Progress and a New Beginning", as well as the rather mysterious party (at least to me) called "I am a Frankfurter."

There is also a party called "Politics without a Party".....

....then there are two extreme right-wing parties, the upcoming "Alternative for Germany" and the long established Neo-Nazis which of course do not call themselves Neo-Nazis, but "National-Democratic Party of Germany" (NPD). The latter exists for many decades, and at the moment there is actually a new effort ongoing to declare them illegal, which can only be done by German Supreme Court, where proceedings in this matter have started.

This is by far the funniest name on the list: "Party for Labour, the Constitutional State, Protection of Animals, Support of Elites and Base Democracy."

EDIT:I actually only realized later that this funny-sounding party is in fact a "satire-party", which has its origins with a political satire magazine which is based in Frankfurt. They even have a member in the European Parliament, believe it or not. More info can be found here.

Well, there is more, but this should suffice!

I found a graphic showing the Frankfurt City Council how it looked right after the 2011 election, and as you can see, quite a number of these small parties got a few seats:

Surprisingly, the second largest party after the Christian Democrats in Frankfurt are not the Social Democrats, but the Green Party. Starting once as a very small, left-leaning environmental protection party in the 1980s, the Green Party became a major force in some locations. In our state of Hessen, the Green Party is currently also forming a coalition with their old "arch-enemies", the Christian Democrats on the state-level. In another German state, the Green Party even leads the government, and the state has a "Green" Governor.

The Mayor of Frankfurt is elected separately from the City Council, via direct vote from the citizens, but not today.

So I hope you enjoyed this little excursion into the wild world of local German politics, and the post was almost "Trump-free"....!

Trump would have 99% of the members of the City Council have "beaten up", as they would not agree with him. The one guy from the NPD however might really like him! I bet he does.

As far as political comedy is concerned, British comedian John Oliver delivered the ultimate slam dunk on Donald Trump/Drumpf. John Oliver is doing now what Jon Stewart should have been doing, but I get the impression that Jon Stewart is "burned out", so to speak, and for this reason stopped hosting the "Daily Show." Thankfully, his former "apprentice" John Oliver now rises to the occasion.

Drumpf is so unpopular, so unpredictable, such anathema to how politics is run that he surely would be a terrible general election electorate, they argue. But these were the same things many said about Drumpf's chances of success in the Republican primary. And Drumpf proved them all wrong.
So I will say this: If you are someone who does not want Donald Drumpf to become president of the United States, stop rooting for him to get closer to becoming president of the United States.

Much as people had to grapple with the notion that Drumpf can get the nomination, they must also grapple with this fact: There is a chance that he will win the presidency.

It is irresponsible to root for Drumpf to get closer to the presidency if you think he's bad for the country

Some liberals and Democrats are pro-Drumpf because they think Donald Drumpf would be a better president than the other Republicans pursuing the nomination for president. (Those people include Vox's Matt Yglesias.) But many liberals and Democrats are pro-Drumpf because they think he's a weaker candidate in the general election than, say, Marco Rubio, and therefore his nomination makes it more likely that Hillary Clinton (or even Bernie Sanders) will be the 45th president of the United States.

It is this second type of person that I have an issue with. It is irresponsible to root for the victory of someone you genuinely believe is the worst option to run the US. Because as unlikely as you may think a Drumpf victory is, it is absolutely possible. It is, in fact, more likely than you think.
It's playing Russian roulette, but with democracy.

As you can see, I made the Donald Drumpf again.

Thank God one-thousand times for John Oliver!

Finally, check out the new hashtag for twitter, which has become extremely popular already:

What matters to us is the truth

"The chief thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbors it where it finds it. And another thing: the truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side."-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann, December 16, 1828

Sensational revelations in the "Trig emails" about Sarah Palin's pregnancy

POST 1 - CLICK TO READ: Lisa Demer, journalist at the Anchorage Daily News, asked all the right questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig, and asked directly for Trig's birth certificate - but was met by stonewalling and insults from Palin's staffPOST 2 - CLICK TO READ: More discoveries in Sarah Palin's released emails: Palin's team wanted to launch "pre-emptive strike" against ADN-story about Palin's pregnancy, was shocked that Lisa Demer tried to put together a "timeline" of Bristol's pregnancies and contacted schools and hospitals

POST 3 - CLICK TO READ: Newly released email suggests that five weeks after Trig's official birth, Sarah Palin didn't have a birth certificate for Trig

- UPDATE: Palin's spokesperson wants to "cut the ADN off" if they continue to ask questions about Trig's birth

- UPDATE 2: ADN-editor Pat Dougherty to Bill McAllister: "The judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice"

Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy

Download all posts by Politicalgates about the faked pregnancy as PDF-document HERE.

Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss: "I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

Commentary at "The Guardian"

Commentary at "The Guardian" (UK) from April 28, 2011, written by Kathleen Baker, editor of Politicalgates, about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy: "Sarah Palin, unreliable narrator"

How she got away with it

How Sarah Palin finally got away with the Trig pregnancy hoax, despite a mountain of evidence: Read this overview

Download Sarah Palin Trig pregnancy research paper

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

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